Bless them, Lord!

Don’t do wrong to anyone to pay them back for doing wrong to you. Or don’t insult anyone to pay them back for insulting you. But ask God to bless them. (I Peter 3:9)

Okay, gonna ask a revealing question today: "When someone does you 'wrong', what is your first response?" If you are anything like me, you might think it wasn't exactly 'fair' for them to treat you that way, and even think you'd like to 'get even' a bit. It is kind of like you want them to know exactly how they hurt you, but you know they most likely won't feel the same hurt as you do. Truth be told, we can all deal with the 'getting even' kind of response from time to time, but is it God's desire for us to respond that way? Absolutely not! Does he understand it hurts us? Yes, but he has prepared much more for us in 'blessing our enemy' than we will ever get out of 'hurting them'!

Asking God to bless someone who has hurt us deeply is probably one of the most challenging things we could be asked to do. It requires us to put down our pride, sense of 'being wounded', and let God take control of the outcome. That one is way easier said than done! Wounded people want to hurt people. If we keep that in mind, maybe we can see why God tells us to not 'pay back' wrongs. Those 'wrongs' might have actually come from someone who is pretty deep into their own 'hurts' and 'hang-ups' themselves, not able to see beyond them, but 'wounding others' as a result of all they are buried under emotionally, spiritually, and maybe even physically. So, God asks us to genuinely ask God to bless them. 

Perhaps his 'blessing' will come in the form of repentance - helping them see their own misguided actions and seeking his forgiveness. Maybe it will lead to grace that leads to them being set free from what has buried them for so long in such a place of misery. Hurting people only heal when the Great Physician is given access to their lives. When he 'blesses' those who have hurt us, it may look a lot like he has given them a great gift. Just remember this - we each needed that same gift! Grace received should always move us to give grace when it is least likely 'deserved'. Just sayin!

A less complicated life, please

The Lord is close to the brokenhearted; he saves those whose spirits are crushed. (Psalm 34:18)

We live in a world where there are many 'broken' people. To be broken means one's life has been reduced to fragments; ruptured, torn, fractured; is not functioning properly; is somehow incomplete; or that it has been infringed upon or violated. This is exactly how each and every one of us arrives at the feet of Jesus. Somehow, whether through our own choices, or the impressions others leave in our lives, we arrive reduced to fragments, not functioning as we should, and sometimes just plain violated by another. It isn't that our lives are perfect, and we finally come to the feet of Jesus - we bring him the messiness of our lives and he welcomes them with open arms. 

One of the songs which really ministers to my spirit is the one by Casting Crowns that expresses this thought of being "Broken Together". If you haven't heard it, there is a part of the song which simply states, "Maybe you and I were never meant to be complete...could we just be broken together". If we stop for just a moment to understand the wisdom in those simple words, we might begin to view our relationship with Jesus and each other a little differently. In coming to Jesus, we are bringing broken (incomplete) lives to him - his response is to say it is "just fine" that we each come this way. In sharing "community" with other believers maybe we need to have more of this perspective - allowing others (and ourselves) to just be "broken together".

The main desire most of us have is to go back to a time when life wasn't as complicated and messed up as it gets when there are wounds, shattered dreams, missed opportunities, and all the resulting emotional scars which result from us "living life". Broken hearts yearn for repair - this is just true of all who are broken. No one wakes up one day and makes a conscious choice to be wounded, violated, left with shattered fragments of a life. There are times when we make some conscious decisions to just "walk around" in our shattered state, though. 

Whenever we reject the welcoming arms of Jesus, feeling too ashamed or too afraid to approach him with the reality of our brokenness, we are going to continue to live pretty fragmented, emotionally "damaged" lives. While we don't want to "live" in a state of brokenness, we need to recognize it sometimes takes a little while for the shattered pieces to mend - much in the same way it takes a shattered bone a while to "remodel" and become strong again. Even when the shattered bone heals, being helped along by the skilled hands of the orthopedic surgeon, that bone doesn't heal without scars. Our lives are impacted - scars form - but we don't need to be ashamed or fearful to allow those scars to be seen. Just sayin!

Bandaid anyone?

I observed a little photo on Facebook this morning (credit goes to the Warriors of Christ community on Facebook). It was simple, but the thought behind it was pretty significant! Two images - one of a Bandaid, the other of an open Bible. One caption read - "This is for outside wounds" while the other read "This is for inside wounds". Brilliant!  We find all kinds of ways to bind up our wounds on the outside from bandages for those larger cuts or sores, to a small wedge of toilet paper to cover that nick obtained while shaving. In time, they usually heal because they were covered over by something while they had time for a scab to form and the open surface area to close.  Sometimes this is all we need - a simple covering in order to allow time for the wounds to heal. Then there are times when the bandage on the outside means there has been some work done on the inside, as well. 

All praise goes to God, Father of our Lord Jesus, the Anointed One. He is the Father of compassion, the God of all comfort. He consoles us as we endure the pain and hardship of life so that we may draw from His comfort and share it with others in their own struggles. (2 Corinthians 1:3-4 VOICE)

Wounds are best bound up by that which will become the most advantageous for the healing of whatever has been hurt. For example, we don't put a wet dressing on a very wet wound.  We use dry dressings in order to absorb the moisture the wound is exuding itself.  Then there are times when a little salve may also be required because that wound will not heal well without a little help from the medicinal effect of that salve.  The same is true of the "internal wounds" of our soul and spirit - they sometimes heal with the simplest of bandaging, but at other times, they require a whole lot more TLC and a lot of "nursing" to heal.

In that time of healing, the Word of God can be both the bandage and the salve.  It absorbs what needs to be absorbed, covers over while tender areas have a chance to heal over, and brings the necessary "medicine" to that wounded soul or spirit!  God's Word is that which "soothes" the pain and removes the "grime" of sin which hurts us more than we might ever realize and creates wounds way beyond the ability to heal without the tender care of the Great Physician.  It also binds up those areas in our lives where hurts from others just seem to deep to heal from because they have cut deep and left gaping wounds.  Regardless of the wound, the Word of God is sufficient to heal.

As wounds heal, there is a process we might observe of us becoming less and less sensitive to the pain originally caused by the wound.  It is one of the signs we take as a positive sign the wound is healing as it should.  If you have ever cut the end of your finger, every time you go to touch something, you are reminded afresh of the presence of the wound. This is often how it is with those wounds which are closer to the surface in our lives - those things others can "bump up against" and bring a reminder to us of the pain we are enduring.  Then there are those deeper wounds which ache and give us cause to pull away on occasion because we are being crippled by them.  All wounds have a chance to heal when they are given the right attention and treated with the right medicine, though!  Even the deep ones!

It makes no difference the type of wound - the course of treatment is the same.  Allow the Word of God to get into you, cover over those raw areas of hurt and pain, and then allow it to either be the cover which provides a barrier until health is restored, or becomes the means by which deeper wounds are cleaned out, allowing newness and freshness to be restored to the inner spirit.  In time, health comes - but with the right "medicine", healing is sped along in the process. Just sayin!